Thursday, December 18, 2008

Websense

As you might have guessed from earlier posts, I have a very soft spot for the politically and religiously deranged of all persuasions. I recently tried checking out one of my favourite nutcase websites which I had not visited for some time. I tried accessing the pompously named Institute for Historical Review at our local library and a reproving message from "Websense" covered the screen: "The websense category "Racism and Hatred" is filtered. Your Websense policy blocks this page at all times". Er, excuse me? MY Websense policy? I have no such policy banning entry to any website. I had to access www.ihr.org from home.

Plainly some opinions are more vile and abominable than others. The Institute for Historical Review is so far beyond the pale of decency that grown adults are not allowed to access it from a public library and make up their own minds as to whether it has any merit or not. The most unacceptable stance of the IHR is, almost certainly, its reputation for Holocaust denial, though its website contains a mass of material on other subjects.

Does Websense maintain similar vigilance with regard to other unacceptable opinions? It seems highly variable, to put it politely. I had no trouble using the library's PCs to view the "Monthly Review" website, which has peddled Marxist theory and apologias for Communist tyrants for years. I never have any difficulty getting onto the "Guardian" website, which regularly runs articles attacking the family. In fact, like every British public library, Reading stocks the hard copy of the Guardian so that local people who won't use computers can read its ludicrous drivel in print form. The peerless Theodore Dalrymple pointed out a particularly priceless example http://www.city-journal.org/2008/eon1204td.html. Dalrymple's typically superb article covered the cases of "Baby P", a little boy murdered by his "parents" and Shannon Matthews, the little Yorkshire girl who was the victim of a ludicrous "kidnapping" staged by her depraved mother. The tragic fate of these children was obviously the result of the breakdown of any "traditional" family structure. But what does the "Guardian" do? Run an article headed: "Marriage is a form of prostitution".

Where have I heard that before? Of course, it is yet another offspring of Marxist theory on the economic analysis of society's class and power structures. Given that such theories are as utterly discredited as Holocaust denial, you might have thought that society's moral guardians would have shielded us from such dangerous opinions. But some opinions are obviously more equal than others, to adopt George Orwell's dictum.

Incidentally, who was "Baby P"? His real name was Peter Connolly, a fact that you could discover from a few seconds on Google. But evidently the British courts and media feel that we should not know that fact either. Not a single newspaper or TV station has mentioned his re